Honey has been used as a natural remedy and therapeutic aid since ancient times. The anti-microbial properties of honey have long formed part of both folk and scientific knowledge. Applications for honey have included topical application for wounds, ulcers, burns and similar conditions. Honey has also been known to be used as a demulcent for use in the gastrointestinal tract for soothing or allaying irritation of inflamed or abraded surfaces. Therapeutic benefits of honey use are manifested by a reduction in inflammation, swelling and pain; prevention and control of infection in a wound; reduction in malodour and exudate; assisted debriding of wounds and improved granulation and epithelialisation of new tissue. These advantages help promote the rapid healing of a wound with minimal scarring.
Whilst these properties encourage the use of honey as a wound healing agent and provide a moist wound environment, regarded as beneficial to the healing of wounds, use has been mainly restricted to unadulterated honey which has been applied in various forms of wound dressings and treatments. Application of honey directly presents difficulties arising from some inherent properties of the material. Due to its relatively low viscosity and fluid nature, plus natural “stickiness”, honey tends to contaminate the local environment around a treatment region. The disadvantage of direct honey use is accentuated by the fact that honey at body temperature becomes reasonably fluid and migrates from a treatment site to further increase the chance of transfer to unintended areas. Use of honey can be time consuming, messy and impractical.
In using honey, the presence of wound fluid or exudate also dilutes the therapeutic agent exacerbating the problem of diminished contact time with the wound and diminished therapeutic efficacy. Attempts have also been made to address at least some of these problems by combination with other ingredients. Again the outcome has been variable in success rate. It is also recognised that to make clinical use of honey acceptable, it should be sterile (Postmes T, et. al., Experientia. 1995, 51(9-10), 986-9). Many of the antibacterial constituents of honey are sensitive to heat and so traditional pasteurisation techniques are not applicable. It has been demonstrated that the antibacterial activity of honey is not lost upon sterilisation by γ-irradiation (Molan P. C., and Allen K. L., J. Pharm. Pharmacol., 1996, 48, 1206-1209). However, it has been observed that the dosage of γ-irradiation required to effect sterilisation may cause breakdown or undesirable changes in the matrix of honey admixtures known to the art. Accordingly, while the therapeutic properties of honey are recognised and appreciated, there remain problems with the practicality of using honey on wounds.